“There is No Reason Anyone Would Want a Computer in Their Home.”
Wednesday, 14th January 2004
Or so said Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp in 1977.
A quarter of a century (ish) later and the question is not ‘why would “anyone would want a computer in their home.”‘ but ‘why wouldn’t you want a computer in your living room?’ or any other room in your house for that matter.
“The hard drive is moving from the computer room to every room in the house, to the car, even to your pocket,” said Gary Gentry, Vice President of Seagate.
This isn’t hugely surprising. I play music through my computer. I play DVD’s through my computer. I do have a hard drive I can fit in my pocket and play music off. I know people who use music CDs purely as a form of backup. My parents watch the TV and watch videos through computers. All these new “digital entertainment hubs” do is relocate from the computer to a series of boxes in you living room – and allow you to record.
The recording however might be a bit of an issue. How long is it going to be before someone figures out how to transfer “recorded to hard drive from TV” onto a something with a ‘net connection – and from there file shared across the web? Not long I suspect. And how long after that before Film and TV are following the lead of the music industry?
Rich:
Well… there are quite a few people out there hosting Buffy episodes and the like on file-sharing sites already.
Wednesday 14th, January 2004
at 6:57 pm
Tony:
From information where I forget the (unreliable) source…
The music industry has been opposed to just about evry new form of technology which allows the recording of data. Tape, Video, MTV… The only exception being Minidisc, because they thought it was un copyable. (or something)
I find MTV the unusual one. In that exact case, the music industry asked the question “why would people buy music when they can record it off their television.”
I think its fair to say their fears were unfounded then, comparing (in a stupid, ignorant of the details way) with TV -> internet, I will premise that theres nothing to worry about.
Thursday 15th, January 2004
at 1:32 am
Dave:
Tony,
There’s one key difference that you appear to have overlooked here.
In the case of all the media you’ve mentioned, yes it is possible to make illicit copies of music, but in all these cases it’s necessary to have another copy from which to make your own.
In the case of tapes, this means you have to find a mate who owns their own copy of the tape. In the other cases, it involves either that or waiting until it comes on the TV. Either way, transferring copies from one person to another is limited, as you’ve got to physically take your tape round to their house. If you wanted to send your favourite band’s latest album to your mate Juan in Mexico, it would take in the region of a week or so to get to him.
However, with the advent of global communications, it merely involves loading up your P2P application of choice, searching for the band’s name, and he can have the album in a matter of minutes from any number of sources around the world. Worse still, this is currently more convenient than almost any other form of obtaining the music. It’s less effort than going down to the record shop, it’s quicker than getting your mate to burn a CD and give it to you, and it’s cheaper than using the various “pay-to-download” services (iTunes Music Store being the first that comes to mind).
Trust me when I say that the record companies do have something to worry about.
Thursday 15th, January 2004
at 8:31 am